Pickled green tomatoes

With some time on my hands this afternoon, it seemed like a good idea to start some cleanup in the vegetable garden. Although we’re still getting a few tomatoes here and there, the red varieties aren’t really fully ripening before they fall off the vine… so I figure it’s time for them to go.

What I didn’t really expect was how many green tomatoes we would end up with… Maybe about 50 or 60. So I’ve got my eye on making some fried green tomatoes, which I’ve never made, and some pickled green tomatoes.

For quite a while, I’ve had interest in pickles, but was disappointed in a book I bought on the topic (strangely enough with the title Pickled). All of the recipes in that book add vinegar, and although that’s probably fine, I was looking for more information on the “natural” pickling method, whatever that is. Finally, the book Charcuterie came through for me, as it has a great section on making natural pickles.

I have an old 1gal glass jar which I had figured would come in handy some day (maybe from purchased honey?), so I decided that 3 liters of brine would be sufficient.

Heated everything in large stockpot until close to a simmer; stirred to dissolve salt. Set aside to cool. In the meantime, I rinsed the green tomatoes and stacked them in the glass jar. Once the brine had cooled, I poured it into the jar, and fashioned a plastic bag with brine inside to keep all of the pickles submerged.